MedPage Today (1/16, Hlavinka) reports, “Risk of a second mental disorder increased sharply in the year following an individual’s initial diagnosis, and this risk continued beyond a decade,” researchers concluded in a “Danish study of nearly six million people.” The findings were published online Jan. 16 in JAMA Psychiatry.

According to Healio (1/16, Demko), the author of an accompanying editorial wrote that “these findings, along with findings from family, twin and molecular genetic studies, signify ‘an exciting time for psychiatric research, with opportunities to develop new and more successful approaches to classifying mental disorders.’”

Psychiatric News (1/16) reports that “some categories of disorders” appear to have “exceptionally strong odds of occurring together.” For instance, the study found that “compared with an individual not diagnosed with a mental disorder, an individual diagnosed with a mood disorder was 30 times more likely to be diagnosed later with a personality disorder or a developmental disorder, and 20 times more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia or a substance use disorder.”

Related Links:

— “Individuals With a Mental Disorder at Increased Risk for Subsequent Diagnoses, Psychiatric News, January 16, 2019

Healio (1/15, Demko) reports, “People with and without a schizophrenia spectrum disorder showed differing patterns of neural activity during a socio-emotional task, independent of DSM diagnosis,” researchers concluded in a “multisite brain imaging study” involving “109 participants with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder and 70 healthy” controls. The findings were published online Jan. 4 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “People with, without severe mental illness may have similar social brain function, “Savannah Demko, Healio, January 15, 2019

The Christian Science Monitor (1/14, Weissmann) reports, “The global suicide rate hit its lowest point in two decades,” falling “by 38 percent since its peak in 1994, according to data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington in Seattle.” But, the US “has seen its suicide rate jump 28 percent during the past two decades,” partly due to the fact that “firearms are widely accessible to Americans, and experts say the 2008 recession and the opioid epidemic have increased the number of those considering suicide.”

Related Links:

— “The global suicide rate has seen a net decline. What caused it?, “Elena Weissmann, The Christian Science Monitor, January 14, 2019

The NBC News (1/14, Charles) website reports, “Low levels of marijuana use – as few as one or two times – may change the” brains of adolescents, research suggests.

The Burlington (VT) Free Press (1/14, DeSmet) reports investigators “found an increase in gray matter, ‘in the amygdala, which is involved in fear and other emotion-related processes, and in the hippocampus, involved in memory development and spatial abilities.’” The findings of the 46-teen study were published online Jan. 14 in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Related Links:

— “Even a little marijuana may change teen brain, study finds, “Shamard Charles, NBC News, January 14, 2019

Reuters (1/14, Carroll) reports researchers found that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s addiction helpline is not well known and gets relatively little publicity compared to the suicide helpline. The findings were published online Jan. 14 in a research letter in JAMA Internal Medicine. Reuters adds that “the Treatment Referral Routing Service, 800-662-HELP provides 24-hour free and confidential treatment referral and information in English and Spanish.”

HealthDay (1/14, Reinberg) reports the researchers compared media mentions of the addiction helpline following the “suspected heroin overdose” of Demi Lovato in July to media mentions of the suicide helpline following the death of Anthony Bourdain the month before.

Related Links:

— “U.S. substance abuse helpline largely unknown, “Linda Carroll, Reuters, January 14, 2019